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developing news. historic arguments in two landmark cases. demonstrators across the country are anxiously awaiting the ruling that's could reshape how the country defines marriage and defense of rights of gay americans. marches and vigils are planned in san francisco and southern california. tomorrow morning, the justice there's hear arguments over california's gay marriage ban, referred to as prop 8. the plaintiffs, a gay couple and a lesbian couple appeared outside the court today. then on wednesday, the court will hear a case brought by 83-year-old widow edith windsor. she is challenging doma, the defense of marriage act. she said she was forced to pay taxes when her wife died. >> it was incredible expense. >> meanwhile, people who want to witness the cases firsthand began lining up outside the court on thursday. using tents, tarps, even

umbrellas to shelter from today's snowfall. they're hoping to receive one of the roughly 60 seats available to the public. we learn one of those who will be inside the court is the lesbian couple of chief justice john roberts. jean podrasky will attend the hearings with her partner of four years. podrasky said this about her cousin. i believe he sees where the tide is going. i do trust him. i absolutely trust that he will go in a good direction. public opinion on same sex marriage has shifted dramatically. a recent poll shows 58% think it should be legal. that is up, 37% just a decade ago. justice correspondent pete williams is live in washington. a lot of details there but we know there are many options for the supreme court in a decision here in both these cases. >> right. let's start with prop 8. the court could agree with the lower courts and say prop 8 is unconstitutional discrimination. if it does that, then marriage could certainly resume in california at the very least. but depending on how broadly the

court ruled, it could say that any state that also allows civil unions but doesn't allow marriage, that's unconstitutional, too. that would broad yep it out to eight states or could say basically language that no state can decline same-sex marriage. that would be huge. it doesn't seem likely the state would say that. if the court upholds prop 8, then what would probably happen is another vote on whether people in california want to keep it. on doma, there would be no if he can at all on the states no matter how the supreme court rules. if the supreme court rules with the lower, agrees with the lower courts that it is unconstitutional, that would affect only the federal government's attitude. the states would still decide for themselves but the federal government would have to recognize the marriages in those states. now numbering 9 that permit same sex marriage and if doma is

upheld, then federal government goes on ignoring those marriages, depriving same sex couples of about 1,000 federal benefits. >> thank you very much. i know we'll be to you daily and we'll see what happens next. and let me bring in liz mayer who is on the advisory county. steve, chairman of the gay and lesbian victory fund, and the constitutional law professor at georgetown university. thank you for joining me. paul, i would like to start with you. "time" magazine had the cover, from gay marriage to obama care, justice anthony kennedy is the decider. i want to show this to you. and read a portion of talking points memorandum officially there was an article posted. it said there have been two decisions in american history expanding rights for gays and lesbians. anthony kennedy wrote the opinion for both. he know where history is going and that he faces the choice between writing the next plessy versus ferguson and the next brown versus board of education. he wants to be on the right side of history. what's your response to that in. >> all of that is quite accurate

except maybe where they're guessing about kennedy's mind and the right side of history. but that also sounds right to me. he did rule, he is going to be probably the deciding vote with the other justices evenly split. so which way he throws his weight will be determinative. he did decide in favor of gay rights in two previous cases. somewhat different but also somewhat the same as this. so we'll just have to wait and see about that. >> liz, i want your reaction to the fact that justice roberts' cousin who is gay jean podrasky will be in the audience. she believes that he sees the tide and that she trusts his judgment absolutely. that he will go, in the quote, good direction. that's an incredible development to have his relative. we've seen recently obviously, politicians come out because

their children say they are gay and they want to support their child as well as laws that could benefit their children. is not that an interesting detail here? >> i think it is an interesting detail. obviously she knows chief justice roberts far better than probably anybody who is going to be comment it aing during this selling omt msnbc does. so that is an interesting detail. however, ultimately the way the supreme court has to look at this as well as every other case that comes in front of them really just is in terms of the constitution and constitutional protection. so it may not be indicative of where he will go. and i think as it was outlined at the beginning of the segment, there are obviously a number of legal complexities in both these cases and this isn't going to be entirely clear cut, most likely. >> you make the point about legal complexities. we know they're emotional. for some people the religious complexity, although we know the separation of church and state that should be. let me play what ralph reed said on "meet the press" regarding the court and his opposition to same-sex marriage. let's play it.

>> i think the issue before the court and the issue before the american people, and they have after all voted in 31 state referenceum. only three have voted the other way. so this tests very differently at the ballot box than a poll. the issue before the country is, do we have a compelling interest in strengthening and supporting the durable enduring and uniquely complimentary and pro creative union of a man and a woman. >> divorce rates -- >> no. the answer -- that would be an argument for why we ought to strengthen it. >> the reason why is because it is better for children and all the social science shows that. >> so liz, you talk about the complexity but here you have a conservative bringing it down to procreation and family. you have folks saying go after divorce. and try to fight, for example, the right to have a divorce as other posed to someone who wants to be married. in many cases they have children

that they've adopted. >> i think actually, there are many people who are advocates of same sex marriage and the freedom to player why who would in fact argue that by allowing same sex couples the ability to get married and to have that relationship recognized by the state, you are actually strengthening the institution of marriage. that is certainly one of the arguments i would make and i think that is something you're going to hear a lot more of. >> let me bring you, i want to reed the comments in 1996 during the house debate on doma. comments made by congressman, this is in 1996. he said we are talking about human beings, people like you. people who want to get married, buy a house and spend their lives with the one they love. they've done no wrong. i will not turn my back on another american. i will not oppress my fellow human being. i have fought too hard and too long based on race not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation. those comments in 1996.

now we have claire mccass kell, for example, hillary clinton at the end of the week. and we know the president's evolution on these issues related to doma. this was john lewis, 1996, talking about the civil right, the right of a human being to marry another. their there has been a long struggle for civil right for gay and lesbian people. and there were people early on who recognized this was a fundamental civil rights issue. the reason people are coming to that view is because of people coming out in their countries and whether it is john roberts or other people in the country realizing that they are brothers and sisters and cousins of people who are gay and lesbian. and it is inevitable. watching ralph reed with the most ridiculous argument i've ever heard of the many ridiculous arguments against gay marriage. he's arguing the only reason people get player sid to have children. people get married because they want to be in a loving, committed relationship with each other.

there is no reason that fundamental right should be denied. >> to steve's point, ralph reed was not discussing the lawful he is talking about religion and emotional reaction to marriage and the sanctity of it. i want to play this. he was on "meet the press." >> what i said, i think we're going to win. i don't think we're going to win 5-4. i think this is a basic civil rights issue. and i don't think there is the kind of issue that will divide the court the way some other issues divide the court. >> what is your take on that with prop 8? will it divide the court as some other issues? >> i think it will be divisive. i can't call exactly what the numbers breakdown will be but it is important to note that in the california situation, what you've got is a state that first gave rights to same sex marriage. to gays. and then yanked it away in this proposition 8. and i think that makes it a

different case than whether there is a right to same sex marriage nationally and in all the states. here, it looks very much like something that was given was then taken away and maybe because they just don't like gay people. that is the argument. so in that situation, i think we have a very special case. and there is a chance that the supreme court will indeed say you can't do that. you can't first give the rights and take it away. that is different than some other states where they just haven't said anything. they just let the status quo be that there is no such thing as gay marriage. they didn't affirmative grant the right and then take it away. >> the polls reflecting similar poll that we've seen lately. views on same sex marriage, now 58% believe it should be legal. 2003, 37%. a significant change there.

does the court pay any attention to number like this? >> well, they are human beings. they do read the press. they protest they don't get influenced by this kind of thing. it is a little bit of an ivory tower profession but not completely. these are practical men and women who have come out of practical affairs to sit on the courts. this will influence them. it will probably not be reflected in any big way in the formal decision but down deep inside them, what people, what their friends and neighbors think, will influence them. and i think it is interesting that john roberts recently in several decisions has shown that he is not as conservative as he was predicted to be. and i think things like what the public thinks and what his relatives think and his colleagues, all influence not only him but the others. whether they will admit it or not. >> all right. thank you all. i greatly appreciate you being on the panel.

thank you for your time. coming up, mark zuckerberg using his millions to jump into a political debate. will he be able to lean on his friends for help? and from one billionaire to the next, michael bloomberg putting even more of his cash behind gun control. the big question, can his money make a difference? we'll tell you about a huge ad buy from bloomberg. and as we wait to see what the supreme court says regarding same-sex marriage, karl rove is indicating that he can imagine a republican candidate backing same-sex marriage also. is there a money motivation for some in the gop to now support same-sex marriage? a political article of we'll dig deep in that and join our conversation on twitter. you can find us on tamron hall. i was cooking dinner for my family.

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more now on tomorrow's supreme court hearings on same-sex marriage. a growing number of politicians in gop country are following a trend of support for gay rights. now first republican senator rob portman and today, claire mccass kell. in a new york time op ed, frank bruney made this comparison. he said somewhere along the way standing up for gay marriage went from nervy to trendy. it is the harlem shake of political engagement. senior political editor mark murray joins us. maybe you wouldn't have made the harlem shake comparison. you get what he is saying. i don't want to use the word trendy. we're talking about lives of human beings and their children. we are seeing this trend not

just with the gop but claire mccasskell. >> right now it was really the big story when rob portman came out in favor of gay marriage. one of the few republican politicians to do so rob portman in 2016 when he is up for reelection. in a lot of ways there was this silence. sometime when there's silence, that means people have cover to do what they want to do. for republicans, there are a lot of republican who's are against gay marriage. just 27% in a recent nbc "wall street journal" poll, in favor of gay marriage. you will see a lot of republicans not completely do what rob portman did but right now there isn't a pension to come out in favor of gay marriage. >> you mentioned rob portman. his son will portman wrote in the daily news about coming out. he said in part i'm proud of my

dad because he's been thoughtful and open minded in how he has approached the issue and because he has shown that he is willing to take a political rick to take a principle stand, he was a good man before he changed his position and as he good man now, just as there are good people on either side of the issue. that's will portman about his dad. he noted what at least their family saw as a political risk for his father. >> yeah. and i think that that risk would have been much more pronounced four years ago. we've seen this issue change so rapidly. just a nine-year period. where back in our own poll, the one that i was deciding in 2009, 41% of the country was in favor of gay marriage. now that is up 10 percentage points. in politics, there is a very big difference between up from% support and 51%. >> politicalco has this argument. i'm sure you've seen it. the republicans see cash opportunity in gay marriage shift and i'll quote at least one republican fund-raiser who said he thinks it will open up doors with donors across the

board. because it demonstrates the republicans are trying to recreate the big ten they've been known for. and they talk about donors in new york, california. we're talking folks with big money who may have been on the sidelines with the party. >> it could help in the short term. of course we saw president obama and his campaign raise a tremendous amount of money from the gay community, particularly after he announced his support for same sex marriage. there is a question on who would be the biggest recipient? the party out in front of the issue? the democratic party versus the republican party which is kind of either starting to he will brace it, sitting on his hands or still opposing it. and make no mistake. the social conservatives still make up a very important part of the republican party. and they are opposed to this. >> and real quick, i have to let you go but i have to ask about karl rove saying he can manning the next presidential candidate, republican saying flat out that he is for gay marriage. his response was a question that he was asked, he said he could manning it. >> i guess you theoretically

could. marco rubio could end up being that 2016 choice is against gay marriage. when you get to a republican primary season, when everything is on the table. there is tons of back ask forth between candidates, that the candidate in favor of gay marriage, it could be a liability in places like the iowa caucuses and other conservative presidential primaries. >> it is good to see you. coming up, secretary of state john kerry makes an unannounced stop in kabul. sources say he is there to mend fences with afghan's -- afghanistan's president karzai. we'll get a live report from kabul. plus, actor kelsey grammar is again talking about running for office. what is he saying about his multiple marriages? and his drug abuse? just one of those things we thought you should know.

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two of the richest men in america are pouring big money into america as they seek to gain control. michael bloomberg speaking out about gun control. he is putting $12 million of his own money behind a new ad campaign that will air in 13 key states. >> for me, guns are for hundreding and protecting my family. i believe in the second amendment and i'll fight to protect it. with rights come responsibilities. that's why i support come prehelpsive background checks. so criminals and the dangerously mentally ill can't buy guns. that protects my rights and my family. >> today we learned that facebook founder mark zuckerberg is forming a groom group that will pour millions into a group for immigration reform. he is putting in $20 million into the effort. and the pro obama group will

begin an aggressive online campaign pushing for immigration reform. joining me now, democratic strategist, chris kofinas. lois, let me start with you. i want to play what wayne lapierre played on "meet the press" in response to mayor bloomberg and his millions of dollars he is willing to put up in this battle. >> he is going to find out this is a country of the people, by the people and for the people. and he can't spend enough of his $27 billion to try to impose his will on the american public. they don't want him in their restaurants. they don't want him in their homes them don't want them telling them what food to eat. they sure don't want to say which firearms to own that and he can't buy america. >> interesting remarks for many reasons. he waves in this soda ban and some other things but basically paints bloomberg as daddy war bucks, trying to dole out his cash. we know the nra has its arsenal as well and has, too, shelled

out millions of dollars in an effort. >> i think before this whole fight is over, we'll be spending hundreds of millions of dollars on this. he made a very clever point. he is trying to paint bloomberg as a guy that is just going to buy everything. but the one thing that is going on here is optics. basically, bloomberg has on his side sort of this whole notion that it is time to do something different. and wayne lapierre is looking like a tired old white guy that is clinging on to something of the past. >> i'll let you say that. i'll bring you in on this. chris cillizza, the other chris we like so much. he said it is harder to change politicians' minds on an issue when an election is more than a year off. timing still mataries great deal in politics and it is how to see how $12 million spend in march of an offyear will have a tremendous persuasive effect on

the incumbents. that is chris cillizza's analysis of michael bloomberg and his $12 million buy. do you see it that way? >> i think there is at love truth to that. when you talk about as many states as the map shows, 13 states, $12 million. we're not about a very serious buy. if you wanted to get serious, you're about tens and ten of millions of dollars. that being said whargts does do is start a conversation in some of these red states and the language in that commercial is very main stream acceptable language. >> not just the language. the look. i'm from texas. that's a good old boy on his pick-up. and he is appealing to a certain audience. >> so part of this, i think, is to make people comfortable with the debate. there will be around two and around three. especially when you're talking about gun control. this won't be settled in the next few days or weeks. i consider this an opening salvo for a guy who has billions of dollars. you won't win this. let's be honest. you won't win this by pouring money into ad buys. you're going to win this by the

folks that are negotiating this right now in the senate. come to terms with some kind of deal on, particularly on criminal background checks and what that entails. that's where the sticking point is right now. >> and let me bring you in on mark zuckerberg. politico has done some reporting. what do we know regarding his involvement and the news that's out that he plans to in some ways follow in bloomberg's footsteps but on a different issue. >> right. and i think he is willing to put some money into this which could be effective. what mark zuckerberg has is a social network of a billion people. and that is where i don't know to what extent he'll use that. that's where he can be particularly effective on this issue. >> you pointed out, using a social network, you know that was part of team obama's strategy. this long arm of the internet. and certainly, if you bring in zuckerberg, his millions of dollars, and his million of friends, this could be something that we've never seen before. especially from a person this

young even. >> no question about it. and don't forget that the obama network knows how to use facebook. and during the campaign, if you clicked on obama's website, they would ask you immediately to sign in through facebook so they could get your whole network. so i wouldn't be surprised if we saw some sort of collaboration between two groups to reach as many people as possible. >> that would be interesting. i want to play the president's remarks. he was at the naturalization ceremony, regarding a bill. >> i expect a bill to be put forward. i expect the debate to begin next month. i want to sign that bill into law as soon as possible. >> throws the latest remarks on the president. the timing here that we're learning about zuckerberg, coincidence, what do you think? >> you know, i don't know. that is a very interesting question. i think the time is right for immigration and you know, all he has to do is read the paper and know that it will come up in the next couple weeks. i think the president's comments today were very politically interesting. because he is basically saying

this is a priority. i'm going to do this. and i'm sure he can feel the tide in his favor. the republicans just last week came out with their autopsy report that went on and on about reaching out to different demographics. >> and chris, let me bring you in. when we would say the name sheldon ableson, you had democrats just repulsed by the man. here you have mark zuckerberg, i'm assuming he is a democrat and some others like michael bloomberg who are willing to put their money up for issues that democrats want or progressives would like to see move forward. the same with sheldon ableson with his ideas and his ideology and his millions. >> yeah. i think the difference here is putting money behind positions and issues where the cause is right. i think it makes a difference. especially that's where the country is moving toward. i think what you're seeing on the immigration issue is everything is kind of coming together. the timing, the politics, the

policy, to push something forward. and i think where zuckerberg's group, when it comes up, millions of dollars help but the ability to organize people online, get that support rolling are the grassroots level becomes very powerful. and i think when you see the president coming out there and talking, the president is basically saying, listen, we do not want anything to stop this momentum and time is always the enemy in these somewhat difficult issues. you want to keep it moving forward. >> i know in d.c. you like to call people game changers. this mark zuckerberg thing could be all those people on facebook and his money and his youth on his side. thank you. great pleasure having you both on. still ahead, wall street reacting to news that cyprus is facing bankruptcy. wall street and the dow today. there's a lot going on today

and here are some thing we thought you should know. michele bachmann is under investigation by the office congressional ethics. the daily beast reports investigators are now interviewing staffers from her 2012 presidential campaign about alleged intentional campaign finance violations. an attorney for bachmann insists she is not. one of hollywood's few outspoken republicans, kelsey grammer, said he could run for office someday but did not mention any specific plans. what would voters make of the alcohol, drugs and multiple wives, he said it would come up but i don't think it will stick. . a brand new start. your chance to rise and shine. with centurylink as your trusted technology partner, you can do just that. with our visionary cloud infrastructure, global broadband network and custom communications solutions,

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he held talks with hamid karzai who recently accused the u.s. of clueding with the taliban to keep afghanistan weak. meantime a major hurdle in the u.s./afghan relations -- has removed today when the u.s. handed over control of the main american run prison in afghanistan. mike taibbi joins us live from kabul with the latest. so mike, as we understand it, this is about menning fences. not about confrontation of those remarks made by hamid karzai. >> reporter: i think you have that exactly right. it is not just the remarks by karzai but it's positions that he has taken in the past. particularly those recent statements accusing the u.s. of negotiating daily with the taliban, of clueding with them, acting in concert with them. so that combat troop could be extended beyond the 2014 draw-down deadline. but the issue about bagram was important and a real ear tan for afghans. because he had been demanding

that they have full control of that prison on which the u.s. government has spent a quarter of a billion dollars. has 4,000 detainees. there were questions about whether or not the u.s. would be consulted at all on which if any of the 4,000 detainees there who the u.s. might consider high value or high risk prisoners might be released or part of a prisoner exchange. second kerry said in one of the many instances when it had been smoothed over, he is confidence the u.s. will have a say and the dangerous prisoners will not be released. karzai insisted that they were misinterpreted. that they were specific comments he made and he doubled down on them in following days, kerry said we're past that now. it is not an issue any longer. and finally, karzai talked about his intent to go to doja and qatar in the next few days to begin talks with how to begin peace talks with the taliban. somewhat controversial because the taliban has said it doesn't want to deal with karzai at all.

kerry has said we support any effort that's made for the afghan effort to speak with other afghans about reconciliation and peace talks. the more we support them, the better it is. and he expects that karzai will go and make that effort. and he said about that issue, we're all on the same page. he could have used that expression about every issue that was discussed at tonight's press conference. the two men, men who know each other. if they're not necessarily friends, they certainly did not act in their body language or the things they said like adversaries. that's a little different than the way things have been perceived with the karzai government. >> all right. mike taibbi live for us in kabul. and a government plan to legalize same sex marriage in france sparked outrage in paris. demonstrators clashed with police yesterday. opponents are upset that france' president pushed for reform without public debate. this comes as the u.s. supreme court prepares to hear arguments. up next, we'll talk to matthew cooper on what he sees

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ahead of tomorrow's first supreme court hearing on same-sex marriage, some experts are urging caution for some of the pit falls gay rights activists could face this week. joining me now, he just wrote an article titled why gay rights activists could have trouble legalizing gay marriage. and you point to my favorite time of life, the 70s. you were referring specifically to equal rights amendment and what it looked like then compared to what we're seeing now. >> that's right. although i'm sure you're far too young to know anything about the '70s. i remember them vividly. look, i make the comparison between the same-sex marriage debate we're having now and the equal rights amendment debate of the late 1970s.

there was an effort in the '70s to pass a constitutional amendment that would have ended any kind of difts, discrimination in materials of the long material of men and women. and it was very popular. it was supported by president ford, president nixon, it had a lot of momentum when congress passed it in 1972. it quickly cleared 30 states. 38 states need to pass something to become constitutional amendment. and that happened quickly. and all the momentum was with it. just the same way now that same-sex marriage seems to have a lot of momentum behind it. and then what happened is opponents of the amendment really organized in the states, and they just stopped it from passing new states. they got some states to repeal it. and it never became part of the constitution. >> and those are all fair comparisons and certainly looking back at history. i found it intriguing. you have with the equal rights amendment is the absence of

religion. which is not supposed to be part of the dialogue here with same-sex marriage but just yesterday, ralph reed was on "meet the press" and he talk about pro creation and the reason we have marriage which clouds this debate and certainly did not cloud equal rights amendment as it relates to what people see as a social view of life. what they think is a moral view of life, right? >> well, you did have a lot of fundamentalist christian groups really flexing their muscles in some ways for the first time with the equal rights amendment. phyllis schlafly who led that -- >> you pointed that out in your article. >> there are differences, as you know. e.r.a. was one tool of the feminist movement and they may have lost the battle but won the war in terms of having lots of statutes passed. lots of states happened with the states, even if the e.r.a. didn't. is not exactly aanalogous to it.

>> the article is amazing and i think people should look at it from an historical perspective. and there was a quote that when the equal rights amendment first proposed by alice paul, you mentioned it was introducing in 1923. it was worded equalities of the rights should not be abridged by any state on account of sex. this fits into the dialogue today. when you talk about the equality of rights, we call this debate. same sex marriage vote here's say this is marriage equality. >> that's right. it certainly echos of the same debate. it is interesting to see what the opponents of e.r.a. did. they said my gosh, you're going to have, first of all, they said you can draft women in the military which seemed like a crazy and outlandish idea at the time. same sex prisons, no men's and women's bathrooms. they took the, the most dubious arguments and that is being

charitable, and used that to make everyone think again. i don't think the opponents of same sex marriage have quite found anything yet that will hold it up as much. but you never know. >> you never know. thank you so much for coming on. everyone should check out your article. >> the stock markets are lower amid concerns over the last-minute deal to avert a financial meltdown in cyprus. the dow is down now 55 points. but it has been down more than that earlier. after intense meetings all weekend, the european union finance ministers okayed just howard before it was supposed to collapse. a highly controversial tax on people's bank deposits was scrapped but the second largest bank will shut down and inflict heavy losses on big depositors. meantime, the banks in cyprus that have been closed the last ten days are expected to reopen tomorrow.

joining me now, let's first talk about wall street and how it reacted. >> it began very promisingly as your graphic showed. there was a brief flurry into the green for about the first 45 minutes of trading and the s&p 500 came within a quarter of a point of an all-time closing high earlier today. then there were some comments that came out from one of the officials associated with the european union. in which he said basically, later retracting it, that he thought that the bailout provisions in cyprus would be a template for the rest europe. this send some shudders through the european banks and there are stocks and that came across the atlantic. and for much of the morning, the dow industrials were down more than 100 points. but after a spokesperson for that e.u. official sort of walked back from those earlier comments, the dow has come back. as you see, it is off just 55 points. one of the folks we talk to on air on power lunge about an hour

or so ago said the bad news in europe in a curious way ultimately may be good news for u.s. stocks. as the money flows across the atlantic, into what is perceived as a safer stock market investment. namely, u.s. stocks. many of those stocks which pay dividends. so that was this person's argument. we'll see today off the lows but not in positive territory right now. >> thank you very much. i know we'll be with you i'm sure very soon. a big court decision for amanda knox tops our stories. the supreme court will decide within hours if knox and her boyfriend should be retried for killing her roommate, meredith kirnlger. they were convicted but the court overturned it four years later. if the court upholds the acquittal, it will bring closure for amanda knox. and kevin orr because poipd

by michigan's governor to turn it around. he said he wants to work with the city council and the mayor but opponents are gearing up to protest his appointment. and it is a $338 million mystery. new jersey lottery officials announced faye the winner of one of the largest powerball drawings in history has yet to come forward. the lucky winner stands to net $220 million. that's a lump sum payment. wow! coming up, our "news nation's" gut check. and a female employee who was fired for tweeting about some sexual comments directed at her during a conference. she got fired. what happened to the guy? plus, easter is just a week away. we're still dealing with the winter that will not go away. we'll get an update on the forecast. and be sure to like the "news nation" on facebook. ♪ you know my heart burns for you... ♪

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there's nothing as rewarding as watching kids succeed and knowing you had a hand in it. you'll want to be a teacher. the more you know. enjoying the "news nation" on twitter page. the storm that blasted the midwest is dutching rain and snow on the atlantic. the snowstorm blanketed washington, d.c. this morning, closing schools, making it pretty tough to commute. the snowstorm now causing significant travel delays in philly and new york where it certainly does not feel like spring. kelly cass has the latest. is it in like a lamb, out like a lion? it is all lion. i'm really bad with cliches. >> a lot of people want that groundhog. they're so mad at the prediction of spring right around the

corner. yeah, right. we had snow as far south as atlanta. that cold chill has settled into the northeast. we continue to track snow, especially in the higher elevations of west virginia, western north carolina, and even across the jersey shore. it just checked on atlantic city, new jersey, reporting light snow. new york city, we're not going to get too much here. probably mixing more with rain. that will hold down our accumulations. same thing for philadelphia and washington, d.c. just minor accumulations are expected. but still as you mentioned, we are seeing those airport delays because of the storm system. in the white, we have winter storm warnings in if he can including a portion of new jersey. that means you can expect to see at least six inches of snow accumulation. the storm will eventually move away from the coast as we head through tonight into tomorrow. but look at that. still in the wake of that low. more snow showers from buffalo to pittsburgh, all the way down even into tennessee. we're tracking those snow showers and just plain old rain but even here, we've got the rain in places like raleigh. it will be a chilly rain as

temperatures are 10 to 20 degrees below average for this time of year. back to you. >> thank you for the update. it is time for the "news nation" gut check. a female employee was fired after tweeting about a group of men she said were making sexual comments at a conference in silicon valley. after overhearing the comments of some men seated behind her, adria richards took a photo of the two men, posted it on twitter along with their alleged comments. the conference organizers say they were concerned by the tweet. quickly met the woman and the two plenty who apologized. the company ceo said she work for the company and said she was right to report the incident but not the way she reported it. he wrote on the company website. publicly shaming the offenders and bystanders was not the appropriate way to handle the situation. the ceo said she put its business in danger and could no longer be effective at the company. one of the men in the photo posted has also been let go from

his job at a mobile game company. what does your gut tell you? the comments not directed at the woman. she overheard them. do you think it's fair that she got fired? go to facebook.com/newsnation. i guess it is one of those sign of the times debates. that is this edition of "news nation." thank you for hanging with us. "the cycle" is up next. what can i get you? i'd like one of those desserts and some coffee. sure. decaf or regular? regular. cake or pie? pie. apple or cherry? cherry. ♪ oil or cream? oil or cream? cream. [ male announcer ] with reddi-wip, a slice of pie never sounded better. that's because it's always made with real cream, never hydrogenated oil like some other whipped toppings. the sound of reddi-wip is the sound of joy.

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